Attempt to hike to the Arch

Location:  Darby Well Road near Ajo, Arizona

This morning I woke up at 7 o'clock after a very good night's rest.  My feet didn't bother me last night.  Laid in bed till 8 o'clock and it is already 61 degrees and will reach the mid seventies again.

I failed to mention that Gaelyn stopped by last evening after dinner and we had a nice long chat.  It was fairly dark when she left to head home.

Today, I did nothing but rest my feet and take short walks around the area again.  My ankle is still sore and bothers me when I walk.  The sun beat down and it got fairly hot till around three when clouds came in and cooled things off a bit. 

Let's finish up with my day at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

There's actually two arches.  How's my shooting? :))

A view of the whole mountain.

The path leading into the canyon.

 Here's where I made my first mistake.  There is a sign at the beginning of this trail saying it was fairly flat and easy to walk.  I stopped reading and Yuma and I thought we were heading up a nice easy trail to take wonderful close-up pictures of the arches.

There's the end of the canyon dead ahead.

 At the end of the canyon there was a sign saying Arch and pointing to the right.  As we turned to walk up the trail there was another sign saying this trail was very rugged and difficult.  I'm thinking they wouldn't lead me to this point and then make it too hard to get to the top.

This is what the beginning of the difficult trail looked like.

The trail started going up at a pretty good incline and much of it was boulders and bare rock slanted dangerously to the side.

View across the canyon.

Looking back at the trail we came up.

Walking in the shadows along the side of the mountain.

One of the easier straight up portions.

Where am I?  The Alps!

Anyway, to make a long trek short, I failed to read the second part of the sentence on the sign at the beginning of the easy trail.  The last .6 of a mile is rugged, dangerous and steep.

By the time I got back down I felt like my toes were trying to go through the ends of the city shoes I was wearing.  My legs and ankles were so sore I could hardly walk.  

I think I made it about half a mile up but I knew that if I didn't turn around and come down, I may not have the strength to do it.  Plus I knew going down would be harder than going up.   Sorry, no pictures of the arches from the top of the mountain.  I waited a few years too many to try it.

Just as I got back down and had passed the sign pointing up, I ran into these two little tykes and there mother and father plus a dog.  Yuma had to try and play of course and the other dog was just as friendly.

 The time is now after 3:30 and the sun is heading down and the shadows are creeping in.  I told them to not go any further than the sign because it was very rugged to go any further.  I sure hope they listened.

Heading out of the canyon very slowly and sore.

Goodbye arches.

 It was getting late, so I headed on around the loop taking some pictures as I went.  With the low sun hitting the mountains, it made for pretty pictures.

I've never seen so many Saguaro and Organ Pipe Cacti in my life and everything is so green with all the rains we've had recently.  Perfect day for my drive.  

It was almost dark by the time we got back to the White Lion and I could finally soak my feet.  I think Yuma is a little tired too.  Hope you enjoyed the loop as much as I did, even though it ended with a very sore body.  I'm sure a little rest will fix that.

See you later.